The Home Machinist!

Greg, Thanks for the good news and no nonsense explanation. Once again you've reaffirmed my belief that I am always capable at any time of making things much much more difficult than they really need to be! Did you have a predetermined amount of precamber in mind that you were shooting for when you ...

David, Option 1 - Cast Cylinders The biggest upside to cast cylinders is the minimal amount of machine work to finish them off once you get them cast. Getting them cast, however, requires a lot of precise pattern making work. You will then need to find a foundry willing to cast them. Further, the ma...

FWIW, Jim Kreider's NKP Berkshire calls for phosphor bronze for the leaf springs. I've decided to use spring steel which I was able to find 3/4" wide x .0625 thick via a snake at Ace Hardware. Should be enough material for a 4-8-4 in 1.6" scale with some left over. Only drawback, of course...

Glent,

A gentleman by the name of Bruch Saylor owns a 1" 2-8-4. I don't believe it's a NKP prototype but rather Pere Marquette. He checks in here from time to time and may have better information for you than this.

Rob Gardner

Mr. Bailey, That is a very nice looking 3/4" Northern. I hope she steams as well as she looks! To all, as some of you have gathered from my most recent post, I have been working with Sandy Whittum who lives in the Adironadack Mountains of far upstate NY. He has Bill Norred's green 15" gaug...

Guys, Here are links to two different video clips of the green 15" gauge NYC Hudson running two weekends ago. It was a real thrill and privelege to get to run this fine locomotive. Credit for the videos goes to Kinsley Whittum, Sandy's son. Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z5X50JJFBTA http...

I feel really bad that I didn't post anything. I was really surprised to hear of his passing and that it occurred during the card order meet that was taking place at the time. Ken and Marion were always very accomodating when I would visit. A lot of my early memories of live steam in Northeast Ohio ...

Andy,

Sounds like you had a blast. I saw a few photos of Art's track last year. It looks pretty impressive. Any photos to share?

Rob Gardner

Steve, Here's a photo showing the original trestle without guard rails. We just discussed guard rails briefly but they may very well be put down before it's all said and done. Here's also another photo looking downgrade over the trestle. You can see the other end of the loop as well. Finally, here's...

Is the Hudson fully restored and back in running condition? That's great news! Are the rest of the passenger cars available as well? There were four more green cars that were built for the 5433 as I recall. There were 3 or 4 grey cars that matched Seymour's engine, too.

Rob Gardner

Dave, Thanks for the tip on posting the photos. I was afraid it would come down to that! Sandy's a real soldier. He knows how to pace himself really well; probably better than I do. He takes his breaks and keeps right on working. Your atomizer worked real well back in early August. We discovered sca...

The 15" guage RR in upstate NY which is home to the 15" gauge Hudson discussed in the previous post is still being regauged from 14-1/8" to 15" This summer, Sandy and I and Caleb have successfully pushed the regauging into the upper reverse loop. Back in late July, Caleb stripped...